Chapter forty-eight
BAU Headquarters
FBI Building
Quantico, VA
Spencer
"Oh my god!" Garcia fluttered as she ran up to him. "Is it true? Did you get engaged? Is that a hickey?"
"Um, not exactly." Spencer replied. He'd been wondering exactly how to explain this since he got on the train this morning. "Morgan said it sounded like 'going steady' to him but 'betrothed' sounds much more dignified. And no comment."
"So you're not engaged? What's the difference?"
"She was raised to believe that you didn't get 'engaged' until you were ready to set a date for the wedding." He settled everything at his desk and went to get coffee. "But she doesn't want to take that step until she's ready to live on her own since I'm out of town so much. So we're looking at least a year off, probably more, before we get to that part."
Garcia nodded. "Which means you're not moving too fast at all. Oh, this is still awesome news, I am so happy!" She pulled him into an immense hug.
"Thank you." He said to her shoulder. "So am I." He was. It felt good to be settled like this, to know she was there for him.
"And I heard you have a real bed now as well."
"Which is very comfortable." And after remembering what he and Susanna had been doing in that bed last night he had done the next thing and then slept very well. "Thank you for making me do that."
"See, your goddess knows all. So can I go call her or was it bad for you to tell us?"
"No, you can call her. But she probably won't answer, she was meeting with Marsha this morning."
"Okay, I'll call her at lunch."
The morning was quiet as they went over what had happened at Georgetown, did paperwork, settled into the work week. Right before lunchtime Garcia came back down to the bullpen. "Hey, Reid, how long was Susanna supposed to meet with Marsha?'
"Um, I think ninety minutes. Why?"
"Because she's not answering her phone."
That was odd. "She might have forgotten to turn it back on." So why did he feel the panic starting? "Did you call the house?"
"No." Spencer pulled out his phone and dialed. It rang and rang. "Try Pendleton."
Garcia checked for his number and punched it in to the nearest phone. It also rang and rang. Now he saw his concern mirrored in her eyes. "I'll go tell Hotch." She said.
While she did that Spencer pulled out his tablet. He opened the tracking program to check, surely it was just some kind of mix-up…
There was an orange dot over Jack's school and a blue dot over Henry's, but there was no purple to be seen.
Spencer contracted the map. Everything she needed was on the northwest side of town. But there was no purple dot.
He contracted it to see the entire district. No purple dot.
He contracted it to the central Eastern seaboard. No purple dot.
He contracted it once again. "Hotch!" He called out.
The purple dot was just landing in Texas.